This is page numbers 4981 - 5018 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was community. View the webstream of the day's session.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, the Standing Committee on Social Development received a presentation from the NWT Housing Corporation about the senior planning study. I have to say I am very impressed with the quality of the work done by the corporation. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why the corporation's primary focus is on the communities of Hay River and Yellowknife when, if you look at the projected seniors population of 2028, we have four communities that will see seniors' populations increase over 90 percent? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank and welcome the Member's comments about the public presentation that we had with committee yesterday. As Members know, seniors are one of the fastest-growing populations not only in the Northwest Territories, but right across Canada. In terms of the question that was asked, in terms of Yellowknife and Hay River, they are the two largest seniors' populations in the Northwest Territories, and we do know that there is existing seniors' infrastructure that will require replacement. I have said that in the House before. I just want to remind all Members that we have also invested over the last few years in building seniors' complexes in the communities of Aklavik, Fort Liard, Whati, Fort Good Hope, and Fort McPherson. As I mentioned in a statement that I addressed last week and in answering questions this week, we are going to be developing community housing plans, and looking at the priorities of the communities and getting their input into where we need to invest our dollars. I'm looking forward to that, meeting with our leadership and community members, and I do appreciate that the Member is concerned with the results of the study. We look forward to using that study to look at how we are going to invest dollars going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I understand that we are going out and doing community housing plans, and that's really good, but there are 33 communities, and some of the communities are seeing elders' populations grow, increase drastically, here. I spoke in this House about elders in the Nahendeh riding who want to stay in their home communities and prefer their own homes. However, O and M costs may be difficult for them, and they would like to maybe stay in a housing unit. Will the Minister be willing to look at adding fourplex units for communities in the NWT Housing Corporation's plan, should communities show a demand for this type of infrastructure before the housing plans are done?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

During yesterday's public presentation, we did get some discussions back and forth about the respect for our elders. I think all 19 of us, and anybody in this House, do respect our elders and want to promote and work with them to live as long as they can in their units. Yes, obviously, we would be looking at fourplexes in the communities, should the communities want to pursue that. It would be energy efficient over the existing designs that we have had in the past, and also it would reduce the cost of construction. So as we work with communities and leaders developing these community plans, I would be more than open to looking at these fourplexes. As I mentioned, we want to keep our elders living in their units as long as we can, and also providing those units in the five communities that I mentioned previously, and having respect for our elders, their knowledge and what they can continue to provide to our youth and our communities.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I couldn't agree more with the Minister. Elders are very important, and they are our foundation. I am greatly happy to hear that the Minister and the corporation are looking at that, and they will look into it maybe even before community plans are done, if the communities come forward. My next question is: in some of the smaller communities, we do not have contractors or tradespeople. In other regional centres, contractors do not find the projects big enough that are happening in these small communities to bid on, so we can see projects delayed or not done at all. Can the Minister advise if the corporation has looked at this challenge and thought about a possible solution, such as using the local housing authorities' staff to help deal with these types of concerns?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Yes, we have looked at that. We know that there is a concern in some of our smaller communities that don't have contractors or anyone who can do a housing maintainer program or do repairs for some of our homeowners, and even our elders. We do provide support through our care prevention maintenance programs, as well as seniors' aging in place programs, as well as other resources that we can bring to the table. As we discussed yesterday and as I have said in the House, we are going to be looking at a northern housing summit, and in the public meeting yesterday I did say, once that is all settled and confirmed, we will be putting out an invitation to committee to come and listen to that, but it's something that we are looking at and will be addressing and providing those services to the communities. I thank the Member for bringing that up, because that is something that we have seen and we are going to be looking at addressing.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the Minister for all his answers to this point, and I think it's great to see that the corporation is looking at this and trying to help our elders in the smaller communities, so that's a very positive step. During the presentation, and now on the Floor, the Minister spoke about a northern housing summit. I found this to be very exciting when we were at the presentation and here on the Floor. Can the Minister please tell the House where the summit will be held, when will it be happening, and who will be invited to the summit besides the Standing Committee on Social Development? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Once the dates are finalized; we're just going through a draft agenda right now. All of our staff and our stakeholders are pretty excited about the summit. It's going to be the first one that has ever been held in the Northwest Territories. We have been providing that information to Indigenous governments. We also have met with the Seniors' Society and the NWT Disabilities Council to have them come and do a presentation. Right now, we are looking at having the summit up in Inuvik, mainly because, as I have said in this House, we have had a very strong partnership with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. They have worked on partnering with us in our capital planning and the work that we've done, and we want to showcase the work that they've done for the NWT Housing Corporation. So we are looking at Inuvik. Once the dates are finalized, I will share them with committee. Once again, we did do an open invitation to committee, and we can actually open it up to all Members, but we are working with the stakeholders that have an interest in our housing needs across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I talk about the possibility of a winter road to Lutselk'e on Great Slave Lake. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister would do an internal look at the possibility of constructing a winter road on the Great Slave Lake to Lutselk'e. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The answer would be no. The reason it would be no is because the Member has already asked a couple times about us having a look at putting an ice crossing in to Lutselk'e, and there are significant challenges around that, around safety and construction and maintenance. We believe that this will outweigh the possible benefits of putting something like that in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

I believe that they have constructed a winter road in to Lutselk'e in the past. It could be an opportunity to look at it again. I would like to ask the Minister if he would at least take a look at it and maybe have some of the officials who do their ice profiling and whatnot to look at something and have a discussion with the opportunities with such a road with the community.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

I can certainly get my staff to give me a quick update on it. From what I know about ice roads being in this portfolio now for the last three-and-a-half years is: we have significant challenges, even with the Great Bear Lake Deline crossing. It has given us a lot of grief over the last couple of years. Even on that one, with the very short ice crossing that is there, it has very similar challenges that we have on Great Slave Lake, with pressure ridges and stuff, as the Member has clearly stated in his Member's statement. We are planning to look at rerouting the overland route for that in the future.

With that said, you know, these challenges that we have on Great Slave Lake are probably even bigger than what we are having on Great Bear Lake. We have an ice platform that is especially large and easily shifts. There are great concerns about safety around that, and safety is our number one priority.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

The reason I am asking the Minister if he will discuss with the local people is that what I am told by the people in Lutselk'e is there is a short window, a small window, maybe, or a short time frame in which the road would be okay. It could be as short as two weeks, like I indicated, and it could be as long as a month before the pressure ridges start to come.

Again, I am asking the Minister: he said he could get the staff to look at it again. I am asking if there is at all a possibility that maybe it would not be an ice road that would be constructed for regular traffic, but maybe something that would be done to haul in, say, the health centre, should that be ready to receive materials for the community. I would like to ask the Minister if he would look at the possibility of looking at this from a special type of situation where there would be a short time frame versus a regular, full ice road that is usually constructed to the other communities that need ice roads?

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

As I said, I can have a quick conversation with our staff. Everything that I have talked about previously on this particular type of project, and particularly on Great Slave Lake, as I said, the safety standards and pressure ridges and unpredictable situations that could happen on Great Slave Lake, the department clearly told me that they do not think that it would meet our current safety standards. I can have that conversation internally with our department and get back to the Member on what the possibility would be. At this point, it clearly shows that this would not be possible.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can understand the liability insurance and everything that the government has to do, realize, or have in place when they are building ice roads. Would the Minister consider supporting maybe a local group out of Lutselk'e to be able to construct an ice road that could be used for the community as a test to see how long the ice road would last? I mean, it changes season to season. I realize that. Would the Minister be willing to, again, maybe have his department discuss a possibility of supporting a group in Lutselk'e to construct an ice road from here to Lutselk'e? Thank you.

Wally Schumann

Wally Schumann Hay River South

As I said, there are some serious concerns of safety around this, as I said. As a Minister, I am not quite prepared to look at it. If we were to even discuss having someone in Lutselk'e have a look at this thing, it is going to cost some money. That would have to go through the budgetary process. That is a discussion that I can have with the Member going forward. That is going to be up to the 19th Legislative Assembly, if we were to look at budgeting for something like that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I spoke in my statement earlier today about the ongoing administrative review of the income security programs. My understanding is that the review is to be completed and changes implemented for the end of the Assembly. Can the Minister give us an update on the work? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.